The new Patch 6 update is out for God of War Ragnarok, and it contains a host of bug fixes that should make the game run smoother on a range of PC hardware. The most notable tweak, though, is improved performance on AMD's Zen 1 and Zen 2 gaming CPUs, bringing up frame rates in areas where the game was previously limited by CPU performance.
Other tweaks coming to the title include fixes for tesselation with certain Nvidia drivers and previous Frame Generation glitches. It's the AMD fix that is most intriguing, though, as those early-generation Zen gaming CPUs were famously not the most capable when it came to gaming performance. They're also several years old now. so it's great to see developers still improving support for this older hardware.
The game's developer, Santa Monica Studio, doesn't go into much detail about the extent of the performance increase with this new patch, simply stating that the patch contains "improved performance of AMD Zen1 and Zen2 processors in areas where the game was CPU limited." So, it's unclear whether the result is a generally higher average frame rate, a smoother rate with a higher typical minimum frame rate, or just a reduction in occasional frame stutters.
What is notable about this patch only addressing performance with those first two generations of AMD Zen CPUs is that users of those CPUs actually still have not one but two generations of easy, drop-in upgrades for those chips, if they wanted to get much better overall performance.
With Zen (Ryzen 1000), Zen+ (Ryzen 2000), Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000), and Zen 3 (Ryzen 5000) CPUs all using the same AM4 socket, a huge proportion of older Zen 1 and Zen 2 systems can be upgraded to a Zen 2 or Zen 3 chip. Drop in an AMD Ryzen 5800X3D - or the recently-released AMD Ryzen 5700X3D - and you'll have a transformative upgrade.
As for the rest of the fixes in this patch, the full release notes are listed below:
- Fixed a crash in UI when opening certain Journal pages.
- Fixed a crash that could happen when controllers get disabled or enabled in rapid succession.
- Fixed a crash that would occur in various locations in Vanaheim.
- Improved performance of AMD Zen1 and Zen2 processors in areas where the game was CPU limited.
- Increased tessellation in Realm Between Realms back to PS5 quality.
- Note that the performance issue related to tessellation is resolved in Nvidia drivers 565.90 or higher.
- Fixed an issue where lock on would rapidly bounce between targets when using mouse. It will now be more "sticky" requiring more effort to change targets.
- Fixed an issue where attack indicators would not look correct when using frame generation.
- Fixed an issue where cinematic dialogue audio would be lower volume than intended.
The new God of War Ragnarok Patch 6 update is available to download now through Steam. Meanwhile, to find out if your system can run this game, you can check the God of War system requirements.
For more ways to make an instant upgrade to your old AMD AM4 gaming PC, check out our best gaming RAM and best CPU cooler guides, as improvements to these areas could unlock even more performance.